One Of These Mornings
by Hobbit985
Summary: Ianto made him promise to leave a note. If he was just going to disappear he had to leave a note.


_One of these mornings  
Won't be very long  
You will look for me  
And I'll be gone_

It was a cold dark morning. Ianto was in between sleep and consciousness, vaguely aware that he was alone, but not quite able to process enough thought to do anything about it. Thoughts of the previous evening danced through his mind. Snippets of the activities he and Jack had participated in floating in his peripheral, dodging out of sight if he tried to look too closely.

Yawning and stretching, Ianto finally roused himself enough to sit up, running a hand through his hair. He swung his legs out of bed and pulled on his clothes, doing up his trousers and shirt loosely. He climbed the ladder up to Jack's office expecting to find the Captain sat at his desk looking through paperwork. However Ianto found the room empty. He wandered towards the door, wondering if Jack was perhaps down in the cells talking to Janet the Weevil, or even up in the rafters feeding Myfanwy. A quick search revealed nothing. Ianto wasn't too worried, Jack sometimes disappeared in the early hours of the morning and returned in the late afternoon not bothering to mention where he'd gone.

These were the times when Jack went to the graveyard. No one ever talked about it, but it was a known fact between the three longer standing Torchwood members that occasionally they would visit their dead friends. Standard Torchwood protocol stated that any members who died, whether it was in the line of duty or not, were to be frozen and kept in the morgue. Jack had decided to change this rule himself. He felt that the heroic deaths of their comrades deserved something better. So they had been buried together in one of the local graveyards.

Ianto pulled his mobile out of his pocket and flicked through the speed dial, trying Jack's first - switched off, typical- and then Gwen's. While he waited for her to answer he checked the Hub nodes. There was no disaster that Jack could be dealing with, so he must be out somewhere doing something personal.

"Gwen?"

"What's up Ianto?" Gwen asked, sounding slightly down.

Ianto frowned slightly, pulling up the calendar. Shit.

"Have you… have you seen Jack?" he asked sounding worried now.

"No," Gwen replied and Ianto could almost see her shake her head and frown.

"Oh…"

"He's probably just visiting the graveyard. It is exactly one year today."

"I know… I just remembered," Ianto began pulling up CCTV footage. "Well, call me if Jack gets in touch yeah?"

"Yeah, sure," he heard Gwen sigh. "We should do something later. I'll send you a text or something about meeting up. I don't think I'm going to bother coming in unless the world decides to end, I don't feel too good."

"Yeah, ok," Ianto swapped his phone to the other hand so he could type. "I'll see you later then."

"Bye."

Ianto pushed his phone back into his pocket and found what he was looking for. CCTV footage of Jack leaving the Hub; Ianto watched as he walked across the Plass and hugged a man in a pin stripe suit. Frowning slightly they disappeared out of shot. There was no other footage of Jack after that. The only thing strange was the indistinguishable audio. It sounded… sounded familiar.

He searched high and low for a note. Jack had promised - Ianto had _made _him promise - to leave a note if he left with the Doctor again. It must be here somewhere… Today of all days. Ianto couldn't see properly anymore, tears blurring his vision. Come on… there must be some note, some small insignificant scrap of paper that he'd missed.

Eventually Ianto sank down onto the sofa and let the tears stream slowly down his face. How could Jack leave today? The one day when he'd need someone to hold him, tell him it would be alright?

Beep. Ianto sat up suddenly alert. What was that? Wiping his face quickly he headed towards the nearest workstation and grabbed a gun.

Beep. Ianto frowned slightly. It was coming from Jack's office. Walking in slowly, gun raised, he found that it was the computer making the soft bleeping every few seconds. He sat down in Jack's chair and clicked the small blue icon that was flashing insistently. A window opened and Jack's beautiful face appeared, smiling slightly.

"I hope you haven't panicked too much, I did set this video to appear fairly early, but I know what you're like waking up at ungodly hours of the morning."

Ianto smiled slightly.

"I… I'm sorry I'm leaving. But… one year and…"

The Jack on the screen seemed to be lost for words.

"I don't have an excuse. I shouldn't leave, but I just need some time away. So I'm going with the Doctor for a bit. I'll be back before you know it, promise."

Jack looked straight at Ianto and the Welshman felt like the Captain was actually seeing him.

"The time might be a bit out… the Doctor's never been very good at getting people home when they're supposed to be back, but… I was thinking… maybe you could come with me next time? That is… if you still want to know me."

"Of course I do," Ianto said touching the computer screen lightly even though he knew Jack couldn't hear.

"That's good to know."

Ianto frowned slightly. The Jack on the screen had frozen, so who exactly..? He looked up and saw Jack in the doorway. Ianto Jones had never moved so fast in his life as when he darted into Jack's arms.

"I thought I'd feel better, getting away for a bit, but I realised that I just wanted to be here with you," Jack said quietly as he hugged Ianto close.

"I know it's tough," Ianto whispered. "I know it's been exactly a year… but we'll get through it yeah? Together."

"Together," Jack repeated smiling slightly and pulling back far enough to kiss Ianto softly.


End file.
